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Quentin Taylor

Dr. Bintrim

WRIT 102: B

Visual Analysis Final

11/07/2021

Diana Davies: The Homosexual Liberation

Figure 1:
Davies, Diana, “Christopher Street Gay Liberation Day.” 1970.
Photograph. NBC News, New York Public Library
https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/lgbtq-history-month-road-
america-s-first-gay-pride-march-n917096

June 28, 1969, in New York City’s Greenwich Village neighborhood, a police raid took

place at Stonewall Inn. The Stonewall Inn was raided was due to it being a mafia-run gay bar.

The police were tipped off about this club and had a warrant to search the building. The officers

that entered the building harassed workers and patrons of the club. The police arrested thirteen
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people. Among the thirteen that were arrested, some were employees, and others were people

violating the gender-appropriate clothing laws at the time. The individuals who were arrested for

violating the gender-appropriate clothing were taken into a bathroom and had their genitals

inspected, completely humiliating them for expressing themselves. As the police were arresting

people and putting them into police vans, a police officer hit a lesbian over the head and forced

her into the police van that was outside. A riot broke out causing disorder in mere minutes.

Eventually all was resolved, but this began to open the country’s eyes to the on-going

homosexual inequality. Exactly one year later, the first “Gay Pride March” in United States

history took place (see Figure 1 for a photo of this march). This Gay Pride march was the first of

its kind to demand, in a peaceful manner, that these homosexual people have been here for years,

and have lived within the society without judgement before coming out.

The individuals that are shown inside Figure 1 look like the everyday neighbor, and that’s

exactly what they are. The only difference between this neighbor and the other neighbor is that

these individuals are homosexual, and without them outing themselves as homosexual, no one

would have ever known. That is the most eye-catching thing to me living in modern day

America. The reason that is so intriguing is because today a majority of homosexual individuals

are not afraid to express themselves the way they want to now. They break gender norms by

wearing more vibrant clothing, wear make-up, and are over-all comfortable with being open with

who they are. Fifty-one years ago, these same people—who have always been here—weren’t

allowed to express themselves the same way due to those same gender-appropriate clothing laws.

Snapping back to 1970, however, the individuals inside of Figure 1 are not directly

named throughout the articles that I have read. The only person that was named directly in the

photo was Jim Fouratt (Fouratt is the man holding the sign up on the right). The only other
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person that is consistently named is Craig Rodwell, and he is not seen inside of Figure 1;

however, he is credited with leading and organizing the march. Rodwell wasn’t present as he was

running his bookstore. On the topic of the individuals in the photo, we can see a variety of

different people. A vast majority of the people inside of this photo are white males, however, on

the far left of the photo we can see two individuals who are of darker complexion. There is

another individual of darker complexion in the background on the right side of the man holding

the sign. It would also seem that there are two women towards the front of the group. They are

located to the right of the man in the middle of the sign.

Whilst being on the topic of the sign, I would like to

draw attention to the background of it. At first glance, it’s

quite confusing as to what it is. The background on the

banner was confused as windows, buildings, beds, or just a

simple representation of Christopher Street. Now what is

truly the background of the banner? To answer that, the

background is simply the word “GAY” in rows on top of

each other. The banner background was inspired by the

poster that was promoting the event (See Figure 2 for

Figure 2: Christopher Street Liberation
Day Poster, June 28, 1970. Courtesy
reference). The reason that it’s hard to make-out in Figure 1 is
of The New York Public Library
due to the fact that the photo is in black and white, and the sun https://www.nyclgbtsites.org/site/
starting-point-of-nycs-first-pride-
is beaming down on it, causing a transparency in the photo. march/

What is the importance of this parade happening on June

28, and specifically on Christopher Street? The importance of the parade happening with those

specifics in mind is because the date was exactly a year after the Stonewall Inn riots. A lot of
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individuals who had attended this parade were in attendance of the Stonewall Inn riots, along

with the organizer of the march. Craig was “A participant in the Stonewall riots in 1969…” and

“…figured prominently in the gay liberation movement of the 1970s…” (The New York Public

Library and [Rodwell]). The importance of this march taking place in the specific neighborhood

was due to it being the same street that the Stonewall Inn riots took place on. It was more of a

statement to do a civil rights march on the street where the very same people were harassed for

who they are, and that statement with that meaning behind it was truly strong. It’s also important

to note that Christopher Street was a very busy and active street. The number of people and

businesses in that area were great, and if the march was taking place in that busy area, that meant

a lot of coverage of the march could occur. That is exactly what happened, and the photographer

who captured Figure 1 did just that. The photographer who took that photo is Diana Davies.

Diana Davies has been covering gay pride all throughout the 60s, and has taken many photos.

With her being an activist, she used this march to capture photos to shed even more light on this,

and she did so by getting the photo published inside of New York newspapers, and selling the

image off to other news companies trying to get in on the coverage.

To compare this photo to life today in 2021, I would like to shed light on the marches that

are held in modern day. In America, and relatively all over the world, there is a month dedicated

to the LGBTQ+ community—this month is called Pride Month. The month that Pride Month

falls under is June. Using that piece of information, and connecting it to what was previously

mentioned before, “Pride Month is currently celebrated each year in the month of June to honor

the 1969 Stonewall Uprising in Manhattan” (Library of Congress). This is a very interesting

thing to think about today with growing up in a more accepting society to the LGBTQ+. The

rights that the LGBTQ+ have now today most likely would not have happened at the time they
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did. In a retrospective view it’s truly a Butterfly Effect. What this means is that without the

Stonewall Inn riots and uprising, there would not have been a Gay Liberation march. Without the

Gay Liberation march, gay rights marches and protests would not have occurred as soon as they

did. Therefore, leading into the potential idea that gay rights—such as gay marriage—could still

be illegal nationwide as of 2021. Gay marriage wasn’t legal federally until 2019 when the

Equality Act was passed by Congress. Pride month would be on another month, or it could just

not exist today without all the prior events occurring.

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank my peer reviewers, Trinity Weimer and Jenna Grove, for taking

their time checking over my paper and catching some small things I didn’t pick up on initially. I

would also like to personally thank Dr. Bintrim and a couple of my peers for looking at Figure 1

and telling me what they thought the background was in the banner.
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Works Cited
Historic Sites Project, NYC LGBT. “NYC Pride March.” NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project,

2017, www.nyclgbtsites.org/site/starting-point-of-nycs-first-pride-march/.

Library of Congress. “About  :  Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer Pride Month  :

Library of Congress.” The Library of Congress, The Library of Congress, 2021,

www.loc.gov/lgbt-pride-month/about/.

The New York Public Library, and Craig Rodwell. Craig Rodwell Papers, The New York Public

Library, 2021, archives.nypl.org/mss/2606.